Seattle Patients Endure Shortest Wait Time to See Their Doctors
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moodboard/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Congratulations Seattle doctors, your patients endure the shortest wait times to see you than physicians from 49 other U.S. cities, according to the Vitals Index annual report.
While Seattle topped last year’s winner, Denver, the victory is marred somewhat by the fact that the average office wait time of 16 minutes, 15 seconds is actually a minute longer than what ranked number one in 2013.
Denver fell to third behind Milwaukee while the rest of the current top 10 cities for quickest times in order are Minneapolis; Portland, Ore.; Omaha, Neb.; Charlotte, N.C.; Austin, Texas; San Diego; and Raleigh, N.C.
Overall time for waiting to see the doctor dropped a meager one second from 2013 with the average wait nationally clocking in at 20 minutes and 15 seconds.
If you happen to live in El Paso, Texas, expect to hang out in the waiting room for an average of 29 minutes, 20 seconds, which put that city at 50 out of 50 for the third straight year.
As for ranking the states by quickest times, the Vitals Index has Wisconsin finishing first at 15 minutes, 32 seconds with Mississippi last at 24 minutes, 45 seconds.
Don’t expect things to get better any time soon, according to Vitals CEO Mitch Rothschild, who cites the potential of 30 million additional people getting medical coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
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